UNBELIEVABLY BELIEVABLE – REVIEW OF 2024 TWISTED DOG THEATRE PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

In the opening scene of Unbelievably Believable, three actors, one male and two females  enter the playing are of the tiny Sandcastle Theatre. They appear sleepy. One is lying on a pillow and trying to get comfortable, the other is reading a book and the third appears with a cup of something trying to do the same. They say nothing and the action is mimed. The man (Gregory Katsenelson) is a magician and he performs a few tricks.

When the three do speak we realize that they are mice or puppeteers and we enter their dream world. The 55-minute show is played in a number of scenes that appear disparate but are connected by the disparate nature of dreams be it by humans or mice or birds. The show has birds like chickens (only four allowed per house in Toronto and NO roosters), a raccoon, a baby-delivering stork and of course the mice.

There is a dragon on a video projection who cleverly jumps out of the screen and ends up in the hands of Katsenelson. There are humorous exchanges with the stork, the raccoon, the chickens and the mice, songs and dances. Sophie St. Jean has a lovely voice and sings in the play in addition to being the choreographer and a provider of songs. 

Gregory Katsenelson, Sophie St. Jean and Katie Crompton. 
Photo: Ivan Kaydash 

Katsenelson showed dancing and athletic prowess in addition to an expert hand in magic and a fine overall performance. Katie Crompton did fine work in all aspects of the play.

The play is intended for all ages but its length and starting time of 6:00 pm on weekdays  in the evening and 11:00 am and 3:00 pm on weekends suggests an important focus towards children. There were some children in the evening that I saw the play and they reacted enthusiastically to the show but there was not enough broad humour to engage and keep the little tikes roaring.

The play has a  good deal of variety in the vignettes that make it up and with humour, song, dance and magic it is very entertaining

Unbelievably Believable, to the credit of Maleikova, is also a celebration of Toronto. They project a large map of  the Leslieville and Riverdale areas of east Toronto with pride. What’s more, Unbelievably Believable owes a great deal to the Maleikov duo of  Catherine who wrote, produced and directed the play as well as designing the costumes and to Ivan Maleikov who designed the lighting.

It is a highly entertaining production and may I suggest that it deserves a bigger theatre? Have the people at Young People’s Theatre seen it?
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Unbelievably Believable  by Catherine Maleikova opened on December 6 and will run until December 15, 2024, at the Red Sandcastle Theatre, 922 Queen St. East, Toronto. https://twisteddog.ca/

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press

SLEEPING BEAUTY … A Fairy’s Tale – REVIEW OF 2024 THEATRE ORANGEVILLE PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Sleeping Beauty … A Fairy’s Tale is a boisterous, irreverent and very funny parody of the famous fairy tale. Please note the apostrophe. Debbie Collins and David Nairn have written the farcical rendition of the beautiful princess who is put to sleep by a spell from a nasty fairy and is woken up after a long snooze by the kiss of a handsome prince. Well, sort of.

Sleeping Beauty is now playing at the small (273 fans capacity) and lovely theatre, the Orangeville Opera House in a production by Theatre Orangeville.

The play is introduced by the vivacious and rhyming couplets spouting Larry the Fairy (Ben Skipper). That is his job and not his sexual orientation. He and the other two good fairies, the lanky Sophia (Andrew McGillivray) and the diminutive Meriweather (Christina Gordon) are the protectors and the adoptive parents of Princess Bella (Annika Tupper). All three of them? you ask. Please, this is a fairy tale and not 60 Minutes.            

The three fairies sing, dance, fool around and provide delightful comedy. But there is also an evil fairy, properly named Maleficent, who has an axe to grind and is dedicated to doing nasty things. Dressed in black with horns that make her resemble Brünnhilde, she is intent on killing or making the lovely princess sleep for a  long time. A juicy role that co-playwright Debbie Collins plays with gusto and relish helped by the energetic boos of the audience.

Maleficent has a junior sidekick in Diablo (Ben Skipper), a raven dressed in black and asked to provide comedy for all, even if it means overacting.

On the human side, we have a King (with William Lincoln doubling in the role) who speaks  with a thick Scottish accent and a Queen (Annika Tupper doubling in the role) and both are richly attired is royal outfits and you would never guess that the actors playing them are the stars of the show.

            A scene from Sleeping Beauty .. A Fairy’s Tale. Photo: Sharyn Ayliffe

But let us concentrate on the stars, the beautiful Princess and the handsome Prince (William Lincoln) who sing well and win our hearts as soon as they appear. They have to experience some tribulations, even setbacks but we know they will find happiness with their beautiful singing and despite their uneven dancing.

This is interactive theatre. Larry the Fairy instructs the audience on how to react to each fairy, positively and enthusiastically for the nice ones and boo loudly the bad Maleficent. There were few children when I saw the play but the mature audience cheered and booed with relish. They needed very little instruction or coaching. They just did it. Playing the audience proved a wonderful ploy for the authors and director David Nairn. The actors seem to enjoy it and the audience reveled in it.

The production has a complement of behind-the-scenes artists that would be the envy of many bigger professional companies. Set Designer Beckie Morris (she is also the Production Manager) designed the pretty view of a fairy tale including the royal castle represented on a panel that can be pushed on and off center stage as required, Costume Designer Wenndi Speck needs to outfit the four fairies, and the raven with colourful and comic attire. The Princess needs a beautiful dress and the Prince should look like he is worthy of her. He does and is.

Nicholas Mustapha, the Musical Director, played the piano and directed the songs from “Happy times are here again to” to “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General” from The Pirates of Penzance.

Most of the characters whooped it up, danced to the choreography of Candace Jennings fracturing the fairy tale and entertaining the audience. Chris Malkowski is the lighting designer for the numerous scenes from the castle to the forest and others.

Sleeping Beauty … A Fairy’s Tale manages to be faithful to the story (well, sort of), pokes fun at it, generates fun and humour and ends with a kiss. Sort of. I am no snitch to give precise details. I will  give one snippet provided by Sophia: Marriage is like a game of bridge: you need a good partner and if you don’t have one you need a good hand. It brought the house down.
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Sleeping Beauty … A Fairy’s Tale  by Debbie Collins and David Nairn produced by Theatre Orangeville will run until December 21, 2024 at the Orangeville Opera House, 87 Broadway, Orangeville, Ontario. www.theatreorangeville.ca/
James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press

TOSCA – REVIEW OF 2024 REVIVAL OF McVICAR’S PRODUCTION LIVE FROM THE MET

Reviewed by James Karas

Puccini’s Tosca is back on the stage at the New York’s posh Met Opera and brought to a movie theater near you, Live in HD, as they say. It  is a revival of David McVicar’s redoubtable 2017 production that replaced the earlier and highly controversial staging by Luc Bondy. Seeing an opera by Puccini is a reminder that with is death in 1925 came the demise of opera as we know it from the standard repertoire. There are many brave and notable attempts to insert a post-1925 opera into the hearts of opera lovers but none has succeeded completely.

McVicar with Set and Costume Designer John Macfarlane has chosen a traditional approach following the precise locations of the three acts of the opera. The monumental Church of Sant’Andrea della Valle in Act 1 is displayed in all its grandeur and beauty. When the choir sings the Te Deum, we are immersed in physical and choral splendor. Similarly, Scarpia’s residence in the Palazzo Farnese in Act II is big, dark and the abode of a man who wields power. A clue to the type of power he wields is provided by the painting of Peter Paul Rubens’ Rape of the Sabine Women hanging on the wall.  

The final act takes place on the ramparts of Castel Sant’Angelo and the set resembles a faithful reproduction of the place of execution of Cavaradossi and the revenge of Tosca.

 A scene from Act Iii of Tosca. Photo: Marty Sohl/Met Opera 

Tosca has four main characters and its main arias, duets and choral pieces, are well known and most opera lovers have probably seen and  heard numerous recordings. The pivotal role is that of the beautiful, jealous singer Floria Tosca. Lise Davidsen takes on the role with assurance and delivers a performance with vocal prowess and beauty. She is a tall lady and no one can mistake her for a wilting flower but her passion for Cavaradossi leads her to “betray” him when he is being tortured. It is a delight to hear her intone “die, die” over Scarpia’s body. My slight complaint is that when the guards realize that she has killed Scarpia and they rush to capture her she hurls her famous last words “O Scarpia before God” as she jumps over the parapet. In this production she sings those words and then runs up the few steps to the edge. I think she should say them as she jumps.

Tenor Freddie De Tommaso has a sonorous voice that sounded bigger than it probably is especially in the first act where the theatre I was in played the broadcast at  an uncomfortably loud volume. They reduced it after several complaints at the intermission. But he was fine as the lover, good friend and defiant victim of torture and finally in his swan song “E lucevan le stelle” when he thinks he is about to be executed. Beautifully done and emotionally sustained.

The brutal Police Chief Scarpia steals the show with his unbridled evil and his misogyny that spills over into a desire to rape. Baritone Quinn Kelsey exudes all those traits with frightful force and conviction. It is hard to imagine him as the loving Germont in La  Traviata asking his son to return to the beautiful land of Provence or one of the boys in La Boheme. Superb performance.

A tribute to bass-baritone Patrick Carfizzi, a comprimario singing the role of the Sacristan. It is a small role but he sings it well and invests it with humour in an opera that is not known for too many laughs. A bow to Mr. Carfizzi.
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Tosca by Giacomo Puccini was shown Live in HD from the Metropolitan Opera on November 23, 2024 at the Cineplex VIP Don Mills, Shops at Don Mills, 12 Marie Labatte Road, Toronto Ontario M3C 0H9 and other theatres across Canada. For more information: www.cineplex.com/events

JAMES KARAS IS THE SENIOR EDITOR, CULTURE OF THE GREEK PRESS

HONEY I’M HOME – REVIEW OF FACTORY THEATRE PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

Honey I’m Home is a play that is written, performed and directed by Alaine Hutton and Lauren Gillis, now playing in the Studio of Factory Theatre, Toronto. Angel Blumberg is the third performer. They play several characters but the program does identify their roles.

The 70-minute piece opens auspiciously with an old woman sitting in a chair and clearly unable to communicate.  Another woman who looks like a nun and has a ringing voice tells us that the incommunicative lady does in fact convey that she understands that the nun is present. In other words, even though the woman is catatonic, she can communicate at some level.

For most of the rest of the play the nun and the catatonic woman are replaced by two, perhaps more, performers representing the same person and her double, in other words, the catatonic woman is seen crouching over a computer screen, perhaps just some lights, and her double is seen through a space in  a wall talking intelligibly to someone called James and someone called Jeremy who speak but are never seen (nor are they identified in the program). The crouching woman gets up occasionally and trots around the stage with difficulty while quick orders are given to her about what to do. Is her double that speaks intelligently and James and Jeremy are robots operated by artificial intelligence? I don’t know.

 

Alaine Hutton and Lauren Gillis in Honey I'm Home. 
Photo: Eden Graham/Factory Theatre

I could not tell until the end when the nun appears and tells us that the catatonic woman has come out of her idiopathic (no one knows what it is) condition and we assume she has recovered. I have no idea but simply make suppositions.

There is considerable screaming and the appearance of a mouse and I am not sure what its role was in the world of the play.

The underlying ideas seemed opaque and the structure of the play with numerous short scenes with some that lasted for a few seconds did not help the situation. Computer-savvy people and those with greater knowledge of robots and artificial intelligence greater than mine may have grasped the tenor of the play but I admit that much of it escaped me. The evolution from catatonia to rational existence also escaped me.

Looking at the behind-the-scenes team, it seems obvious that a great deal of work has gone into putting the production together. A few of the people involved: there is a consulting Director (Adam Lazarus), a Dramaturge (Mel Hague), coaches for scene work (Rosemary Dunsmore) and movement (Denise Fujiwara), a vocal coach (Fides Krucker) and designers for sound (S. Quinn Hoodless), Lighting (Andre du Toit), set, prop and costumes (Lauren Gillis and Alaine Hutton) and other crew members. Those are extraordinary efforts.    

Honey I’m Home looks like experimental theatre that requires knowledge and understanding of current scientific concepts that I lack and therefore could not enjoy the play.

Too bad.   

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Honey I’m Home written, performed and directed by Alaine Hutton and Lauren Gillis in a Lester Trips (Theatre) Company production, opened on November 22, 2024, and will run until December 1, 2024 at the Factory Theatre, 125 Bathurst Street, Toronto, Ontario. www.factorytheatre.ca.

MOULIN ROUGE! THE MUSICAL - REVIEW OF SPECTACULAR MUSICAL AT THE CAA ED MIRVISH THEATRE

Reviewed by James Karas 

MOULIN ROUGE! THE MUSICAL by John Logan  is based on the 2001 film written by Baz Luhman and Craig Pierce. It is now playing at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre in Toronto before rapturous audiences if opening night is any indication. The musical has been around for years and it seems to be unstoppable.

I saw it for the first time on opening night in Toronto. The aspiration, perhaps motto of three of its bohemian characters (Christian, Toulouse-Lautrec and Santiago) and the subtitle on the Mirvish  program is TRUTH, BEAUTY, FREEDOM, LOVE. That covers a lot of ground and there are claims to all those visions or dreams in the show but they were not the first thoughts that occurred to me during and after the performance.

Moulin Rouge is a grand spectacle. Before the show begins there are bright lights illuminating the stage and projected on the audience and they continue when the performance begins. The whole stage is brightly lit in a kaleidoscope of colors accompanied by loud music with percussion played at volumes that made my chest quiver. The audience loved it.

The sight and sound become the hallmarks of the production with some amazing  acrobatic dances by Choreographer Solya Tayeh including the famous cancan. Did I see any dancers who could not kick their heels above their head? And as with the cancan, the attire of the dancers and the dances were erotic as became the motif of the real Moulin Rouge club on the left bank of the Seine in Paris. They are spectacular.

The stars of the show, after the dancers and ensemble singers and the musicians, are Satine             (Ariana Rosario), the Duke of Monroth (Andre Brewer), Harold Zidler (Robert Petkoff) and Christan (Christian Douglas) and his friends Toulouse-Lautrec (Nick Rashad Burroughs) and Santiago (Danny Burgis). The latter three friends are bohemians who want to produce a play with songs for the Moulin Rouge.  

The cast of the North American Tour of Moulin Rouge! The Musical. 
Photo Credit: Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade.

These actors/singers are the people that present the plot and, yes, there is a plot that is needed for us to enjoy the real spectacle of the musical and try to fit the TRUTH, BEAUTY etcetera of the bohemians’ aspiration. Satine works at the Moulin Rouge and she is described as the jewel of the club, beautiful, talented, extraordinary and many other epithets of a similar nature. She meets Christian, a young man from Ohio who has gone to Paris to pursue his ambition to become a composer. The innocent American abroad falls passionately and eternally in love with Satine (“I will love you till the day I die” he sings) and that hardly begins to describe his passion.

We have a problem. The club is in dire financial trouble and needs an infusion of money NOW. There is the Duke who has lots of money and is attracted to Satine but she needs to give herself to him. She is so successful that the nasty Duke buys the club and owns (his word) everything and everyone lock, stock and barrel.

The first meeting that Satine is supposed to have with the Duke to convince him to invest in the club becomes a hilarious encounter when she actually meets Christian. There are hilarious double entemdres with Christian talking about composing songs and she thinking he is talking about sex.

The plot is necessary as a coat hanger for the sound and sight spectacle which,  as I said, I think is the heart of the musical. The love story is conventional. Christian and Satine cannot continue because the Duke threatens to kill  him. The manager Harold, Satine and the rest  have no choice but to bow to the dictatorial Duke. And if that were not enough, Satine gets consumption and claims to truth, beauty etc. go by the board unless I missed something.

Moulin Rouge  does not list a composer or lyricist because the music and songs are a potpourri of compositions by others that take a couple of pages to list in the program. The musical  is supposed to take place in 1899 but if you think you ae hearing some very recent songs, you are not hallucinating.

The Scenic Design by Derek McLane, the costumes by Catherine Zuber, the Lighting by Justin Townsend and the Sound Design by Peter Hylenski are what make the show so (I have to say it again) spectacular. The whole thing is brought together by Director Alex Timbers and it may not be as complex as the Normandy landings but it is a lot more enjoyable.     
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Moulin Rouge! The Musical  by John Logan (book) opened on November 21, 2024 and  continues at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre, 244 Victoria St. Toronto, Ontario. www.mirvish.com

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press

THE BIDDING WAR - REVIEW OF 2024 CROW’S THEATRE PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Many years ago, I was having lunch with a friend on a busy commercial street in Toronto that had numerous real estate offices. He asked me if I knew any honest real estate agents. We had reason to know many of them and considered probably as many as a couple of dozens of them and I cannot recall finding a single trustworthy gentleman. 

The Bidding War, Michael Ross Albert’s new play, reminded me of the incident and did nothing to improve my opinion of the integrity of the profession. I do not hasten to add that smearing all agents with the same brush is both unfair and untrue but the similarity of their characters as judged long ago and the image presented by Albert are frightfully similar.

The Bidding War is a fast-paced, frenetic and wild comedy that builds up to a hilarious climax in the first act and then cleans up many of the loose strands in the second act. It is an amazing feat of fine acting, speed, plot complications and comedy.

The title comes from the real estate market in Toronto where astronomical prices are paid for houses, sometimes through the method of forcing prospective buyers to increase their offers to purchase to stay ahead of other interested buyers who are doing the same thing.

There are four crooked real estate agents in the play attending the “open house” of a small house that is listed for sale at a mere $1.3 million. By Toronto standards, it is a bargain. The agents are Sam (the super kinetic Peter Fernandes) acting for June (Veronica Hortiguela), one of the owners. He is an over-excited agent with his first listing after two attempts to get his real estate license. Blayne (Aurora Browne) acting for Miriam (Fiona Reid), is a sharp and amoral person who has political and financial ambitions. Greg (Sergio di Zio) is a would-be actor for whom, as for the others, lying comes naturally and  Patricia (Sophia Walker) who tries to appears as honest but is not. Don’t worry about keeping track of who is acting for whom because all the agents have the integrity of a pimp or a street walker waiting for the first man to wave at her.

The chicanery, mendacity treachery and duplicity practiced by all of them will set your head spinning and will probably be always a few steps ahead of what you can figure out. But it is always hilarious. 

( l-r) Steven Sutcliffe as Ian; Sergio di Zio as Greg,; 

Izad Etemadi as Donovan,; Gregory Waters as Charlie. Photoz: Dahlia Katz

The buyers are in a class of their own. The invariably funny Fiona Reid as Miriam does not know the password for her bank account and asks her son to find it on the refrigerator. She is a peaceful woman who is driven to violence and ends up with a broken arm. She is marvelous.

Ian (Steven Sutcliffe) and Donovan (Izad Etemadi) are a gay couple with one of them wanting the house enthusiastically and desperately and the other showing reluctance. They are prepared to use chicanery and the climax of their pursuit is Ian’s collapse. Superb comic acting.

Lara (Amy Matysio)  is seriously pregnant and her husband Luke (Gregory Prest) want a house. But they cannot agree on anything including asking his rich parents to help. The parents suspect that Lara married Luke for his parents’ money -  just to add another complication to the plot.

Charlie (Gregory Waters) is well-endowed physically and financially and has the ego to go with those attributes. He is not represented by an agent and just dropped in to see the open house. The equally well-endowed Blayne and Charlie find that they have something more than that in common and I will not disclose why they visit the basement of the house.

Director Paolo Santalucia must maintain a breakneck pace that increases speed by the minute and builds up to a climactic scene. Make that, fight. The actors have to move and speak at a very brisk pace that is at times so fast it is incomprehensible, especially before the enthusiastic opening night audience. The performers carry us through with amazing aplomb despite some minor hiccups.

The complications keep mounting until the end of the first act. The second act is the denouement where we find out who had the highest bid and the fallout of the fights and complications of the previous act. There are a lot of loose ends to tie up and Albert may be in a hurry to do it. So be it. This is a hilarious play, funny, fast, well done and superb production for Crow’s Theatre.
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The Bidding War by Michael Ross Albert continues until December 15, 2024, at the Guloien Theatre, Crow’s Theatre, 345 Carlaw Avenue, Toronto, Ontario.  http://crowstheatre.com/

James Kars is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press

THE LION KING – REVIEW OF 2024 PRODUCTION AT PRINCESS OF WALES THEATRE

Reviewed by James Karas 

Is there an insatiable appetite for The Lion King? It’s a musical that has been seen by more than 110 million people according to Mirvish’s  program for the current production at the Princess of Wales Theatre. But clearly there are people in Toronto who have not seen it or want to see it again.

The question parents need to answer: have you taken your nine-year old (give or take a few years) to see The Lion King? This is not an idle question.

You may think it is a show about the struggle for power, usurpation, displacement of a legitimate ruler by an evil sibling, attempted assassination, despoilation of a community and, eventually, restoration of peace and legitimacy. These are the Trumpian lies that you can tell your children if you want to scare them from wanting to see The Lion King. Make sure you use the suggested big words to help you get away with it. But remember that someone will eventually punish you. But who? 

If you want to evade retribution, you may choose veracity over mendacity or, more plainly,  tell the kids the truth.  

Tell them that they will walk into a theatre where there is palpable excitement in the air before the show begins. Youngsters and adults alike will react with noises. screams and laughter, yes, excitement throughout the performance. In other words, they will experience the communal joy and  magic of live theatre.

They will see a large cast of characters, make that jungle animals, come running down the aisles from the back of the theatre onto the stage. Yikes. They are unexpected, startling and spectacular.  The stage will be filled with animals from lions to a giraffe, to zebras and  hyenas.

 

David D"Lancy Wilson as Mufasa. Photo: Matthew Murphy

There is a plot, of course. Mufasa (David D’Lancy Wilson) is the wise, benevolent lion king who has a nasty, ambitious and creepy brother, Scar (Salvatore Antonio). He wants to dethrone him. Mufasa has a faithful companion and advisor in Zazu (Will Jeffs), a red-billed hornbill and a young son, Simba, (a lively Ira Nabong) who is prone to misbehaving. Mufasa wants to teach him to be a future wise ruler. But Mufasa dies in a freak “accident” and Scar takes over with the help of the creepy, cackling hyenas starring Shenzi (Jewelle Blackman), Banzai (Joema Frith) and Ed (Simon Gallant).

Young Simba is thrown out of the kingdom and goes through some adventures, some great laughs and the spectacle on stage continues. There are lessons to be absorbed by the young about growing up, learning and accepting responsibility, but don’t tell them that. That’s the boring and subliminal part of the plot.

The wise baboon Rafiki (a ball of fire and energy called Zama Magudulela) opens the show with “The Circle of Life” with the ensemble on Pride Rock, the symbolic throne of Mufasa and then the adult Simba (Erick D. Patrick). The spectacle ends triumphantly on Pride Rock with a reprise of “The Circle of Life” in a rousing and satisfying rendition by the ensemble that was kept busy throughout the performance.

Timon (Brian Sills) the meerkat and Pumbaa (Trevor Patt) the warthog are a hilarious and loveable duo who sing the unforgettable and best known song of the musical “Hakuna Matata” but there is a myriad of marvelous songs for individual characters, but they are almost always accompanied by the ensemble. 

The important part is the sheer spectacle that generates the excitement in the audience. The animal kingdom is brought on stage in brilliant, imaginative, entertaining, colorful ways. There are quiet moments, of course, for people to catch their breath and parts played for comedy but the spectacle, the music and singing are not far off to keep the frantic and wonderful pace. The production uses the entire theatre when possible. Watching the amazing costumes that the actors wear and the way they manipulate the animals is alone a marvel.

There is a small army of behind-the-scenes people to bring the show to life but I will mention only director Julie Taymor who has almost countless pieces to handle to bring the whole show together. Elton John and Tim Rice are credited with the music and lyrics but there are five more people who provide “additional music and lyrics” including the director, Julie Taymor.  The Disney organization sure knows how to put a show together.

Oh, yes. Who might punish you if you do not take your youngster to The Lion King? The Furies will appear to you at night and torture your conscience for the offence of omission. You will have to find a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena and beg for absolution!
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The Lion King, music and lyrics by Elton John and Tim Rice with additional music and lyrics by Lebo M. Mark Mancina, Jay Rifkin, Julie Taymor, and Hans Zimmer, book by Roger Allers and Irene Mecchi opened on November 10, 2024, and continues at the Princess of Wales Theatre, 300 King St. West, Toronto, Ontario. www.mirvish.com

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press

A CASE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD – REVIEW OF 2024 COAL MINE THEATRE PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

A Case For The Existence Of God is another superb production by Coal Mine Theatre. God is never mentioned and if there is a case for His existence it is left to our imagination or perhaps a scene in the play. Thank God.

Samuel D. Hunter’s play has two characters and it builds on their lives, their hopes and aspirations, their past relationship, their evolving friendship and eventual fate. Hunter modulates the plot and we see the players in dramatic and humorous scenes that make for   wonderful theatre. 

The play’s two characters are Keith (Mazin Elsadig), a Black homosexual mortgage broker and Ryan (Noah Reid), a working-class man looking for money to buy a piece of land. We are in Twin Falls, a real city of about 52,000 inhabitants in south Idaho. (It’s real and I checked it on Google). And I may add that Hunter comes from Idaho.

The two men come from different worlds. Keith is an educated son of a lawyer who has travelled and after getting a degree in Early Music and English literature ends up as a mortgage broker. Ryan is going through a divorce with a fight for custody and wants to buy a parcel of land that was in his family a century ago. He wants to build a house.

The play is built around a few scenes that change quickly and seamlessly with almost no indication of the change but you can tell that it happened from the context. The set by Set and Costume Designer Nick Blais represents a pleasant if sparsely decorated office with a desk and two chairs where Keith is trying to find a mortgage for Ryan who has a bad credit rating, no assets and lies about having a job.

Mazin Elsadig, left, and Noah Reid in 
A Case for the Existence of God. Photo: Cylla von Tiedemann

 The play reveals the backgrounds of the two men and we learn that despite their social and educational differences, the men have many points in common. Ryan is fighting for custody of his daughter and Keith has gone into fostering a child to be able to adopt her. He runs into a problem when an aunt of the child appears and claims the right to the child. The two watch lovingly the little girls playing in playground in a scene that is moving and humorous.   

Elsadig and Reid act superbly. Elsadig, being black, gay and the son of a lawyer comes from a well-heeled family that provided international travel. Despite having a university degree, he ends up as a lowly mortgage broker and he is aware of his lack of achievement. He has failed to adopt a child and even the fostering route seems to be headed for failure. Elsadig shows Keith’s subliminal and obvious feeling of a failure and he cannot establish a friendship with Ryan. 

Reid as Ryan has a failed marriage and the probability of getting limited access to the daughter that he adores. He is aware of his lack of education (“harrowing” is a big word and unknown to him), and that he comes from a broken family He understands nothing of the process of buying and financing the purchase of a piece of land that will return him to the past when his forebears were more successful. Reid gives a wonderful portrayal of Ryan. Both men come out as sympathetic and we are rooting for them but if their fate is a case for the existence of God, He does not appear to be on their side.

There is a final scene that may suggest that God exists and there is some redemption for the men however indirect. But I am not sure and I will not reveal the content of the scene. Go see the play for yourself.

Ted Dykstra devotes his immense talent in directing a seemingly simple play and getting all the drama, humour and depth of the play and the characters. He modulates every word and every line for full effect be it to move us to tears, to get a guffaw from a single word or to show the attempt of the men to make human contact. Terrific work.

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A Case for the Existence of God by Samuel D. Hunter continues until December 1, 2024, at the Coal Mine Theatre, 2076 Danforth Ave. Toronto, (northwest corner of Woodbine and Danforth). www.coalminetheatre.com/ 

James Karas os the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press

PLAYING SHYLOCK – REVIEW OF 2024 CANADIAN STAGE PRODUCTION AT BERKELEY ST. THEATRE

Reviewed by James Karas

It starts almost innocently. Saul Rubinek is playing Shylock in a Canadian Stage production of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice but he and the rest of the cast are interrupted halfway through a performance and told that the production has been cancelled. The reason given is that the play is incompatible with the times. Very curious. And in the middle of a performance!

Canadian Stage intended to cancel the production the next day and had prepared a mealy-mouthed press release dated the next day to explain its precipitous action. But the pressure got to them and they decided to cancel it on the day it did and when the post-dated press release was leaked.  

Before I continue my review of Playing Shylock I want to lavish praise on Saul Rubinek, the star and only performer. He is on stage for almost an hour and a half performing as the aggrieved actor, as Shylock in parts of The Merchant that he re-enacts and as a Canadian of the theatre with a fascinating background. This is brilliant storytelling, stunning acting and a splendid night at the theatre. Rubinek tells us about his background from being born in a camp in Germany at the end of World War II and his parents bringing him to Canada when he was nine months old. His father was involved in the theatre and he himself has found success in numerous roles in the world of entertainment.

When he enters the stage, he is dressed like Shylock, a Jew, and as the performance continues, he removes all his Jewish attire from yarmulka to prayer shawl. He performs under a huge cross hanging over the stage of the cancelled production. He talks about The Merchant, the actors who performed the play in history, about Jews in the theatre, all interwoven with autobiographical facts. We have the factitious blended with the autobiographical to lend credence to the cancelled production.

 

Saul Rubinek in Playing Shylock. Photo: Dahlia Katz

Rubinek walks around the stage that has a large table and a couple of chairs, addresses the audience frequently and evokes laughter. He leaves no doubt about the essential humanity of Shylock, a role that was not played by a Jew for 300 years after Shakespeare wrote it. Oh yes, it is unlikely that Shakespeare knew any Jews on which to base Shylock and maybe Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, did write The Merchant because he lived in Venice when the play was written and would have known Jews.

Rubinek gives a superb performance of Shylock’s part in the trial scene. The judge was Portia, neither a lawyer nor a judge but who is married to the person for whose benefit the money was borrowed from Shylock. There is no reason to believe that she is not as antisemitic as the rest of the Christians. She pleads eloquently for “the quality of mercy” but only that it be applied to the viciously antisemitic Christians.

Playing Shylock is written by Mark Leiren-Young who wrote a one-act play called Shylock in 1996. That play has some similarities with Playing Shylock but it is a very different. Playing Shylock evolved from the first play after a long period of gestation with numerous changes and the addition of biographical details about Rubinek to give the impression that we are watching a documentary. It is wonderful theatre from Rubinek’s bravura performance to the brilliant and different view of Shakespeare’s play  (except the suggestion that de Vere may have written it) and the informative script.

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Playing Shylock by Mark Leiren-Young continues until November 24, 2024, at the Berkeley St. Theatre, 26 Berkeley St.  Toronto, Ont. https://www.canadianstage.com/

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of the Greek Press

 

FAUST – REVIEW OF 2024 CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Faust has had a happier relationship with the COC than Nabucco.  It was last produced by the COC in 2007 and it got seven performances that season.

If Faust had consulted a good lawyer, say Sir Thomas More, about the bargain he was making with the Devil, Mephistopheles, the man for all seasons no doubt would have said “why Doctor, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world, but for a woman.”  Faust sold his soul and did not get the whole world but did get some youth and the young and lovely Marguerite for a brief time. Not a great bargain for him but a huge boon for poets, playwrights and composers.

The COC production tries to capture the essence of the bargain and entertain us with some of the liveliest music on the subject. The production tries illustrating the theme in the detailed set by Emma Ryott and lighting by Charlie Morgan Jones. There are stairs leading up to heaven, I suppose, that also look like the backbone of a prehistoric animal. We have a projection of a human chest that looks like an enhanced x-ray so that you have to look at all its details to get the full picture and all the symbolism. I took their word for it. The church scene was different and starkly impressive.

Mephistopheles (Kyle Ketelsen), dressed in high hat and tails, is the essence of a gentleman. When he strikes the bargain with Faust, he asks him to sign a contract without any information about what is in it. Faust becomes young and able to seduce Marguerite (Guanqun Yu) but we only find out about that when we learn that she had a baby that she kills. We assume that Faust ends up in the place where the sun does not shine but we don’t learn much more about his faith. Marguerite is destroyed and gets a reconciliation scene with Faust but she has God on her side and does not join her lover in the “Other” Place where we assume he goes. She sings her two big arias beautifully.

Kyle Ketelsen, Long Long and Guanqun Yu in COC’s Faust. 
Photo: Michael Cooper

Director Amy Lane embellishes the plot by adding some characters. Mephistopheles is accompanied by two beautiful silent dancers dressed as if they work in a cabaret in Berlin in the 1920’s. They do not sing but they do look good. During the famous Jewel Song, the jewels are shown off by the dancers.

I admit that the familiar story as worked out by Gounod does not grab me but Gounod’s music does. I found a disconnect between the tragedy of Marguerite even if it is relieved by the choir of angels and the grace of God and the beautiful music and melodies. Where is Mephistopheles’ evil to make us cringe with horror?

I cannot complain about the singers. Kyle Ketelsen is a distinguished bass-baritone and he sang a swaggering Mephistopheles, not evil but a fine-voiced man-about-town accompanied by two lovely cabaret girls. Tenor Long Long gave us a well-sung Faust who, as far as we can tell, got Marguerite and, as I said, then destroyed her life. I still can’t figure out why Siebel, a man, is sung by a woman, the lovely-voiced mezzo-soprano Alex Hetherington. Baritone Szymon Mechlinski sings Valentin, Marguerite’s brother, who gets the sonorous and moving aria ‘Avant de quitter ces lieux’’ He bids farewell to his sister and entrusts her care to the Lord and goes off to war where he is killed.

One can argue about Gounod’s treatment of the Faust legend and the creaks of his famous opera but there can be no disagreement about the sumptuousness of his music. The melodic waltz, the Soldier’s Chorus, the beautiful Jewel Song and much more carry the opera and the audience with them. Conductor Johannes Debus conducts the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra and Chorus with superbly.

Amy Lane directs the production at its best and its creakiest and does her best under the circumstances. 
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Faust by Charles Gounod, directed by Amy Lane, conducted by Johannes Debus ran until Nov. 2, 2024, at the Four-Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, 145 Queen St. W. Toronto. For more information go to www.coc.ca

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press 

NABUCCO – REVIEW OF 2024 CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

For its fall season the Canadian Opera Company has chosen Verdi’s Nabucco and Charles Gounod’s Faust. Both operas are reasonably well known but not exactly chestnuts. Faust was last produced by the COC in 2007 and it has never staged Nabucco before and even this time it offers a production from the Lyric Opera of Chicago. We are happy and grateful for it.

Nabucco has several distinctions, including that of being Verdi’s first great success and being an opera that may best be known for its famous chorus, “Va pensiero.”   A more dubious distinction may be that it has a soprano voice killer role of Abigaile for singers who take on the role while young, undisciplined and unmentored.

The role demands vocal range and prowess that very few sopranos possess. The number of singers who possessed those vocal qualities in the past century can be counted on your fingers so to suggest that Mary Elizabeth Williams, the COC’s Abigaile, does not fall in that category is not to diminish her abilities. She does give us Abigaile’s emotional conflicts, and her ambitions. She reaches vocal and emotional peaks but understandably cannot maintain them throughout. At 47 Williams is not young but she is disciplined enough in not attempting to sing at full throttle for the entire performance. I give her credit for her peaks and understand her care not to overdo it.

Roland Wood as Nabucco and Mary Elizabeth Williams as Abigaille 
in the COC’s production of Nabucco. Photo: Michael Cooper/COC

Baritone Roland Wood has a clarion voice that he unleashes for his performance as Nabucco. The king is arrogant, of course, then he loses it, then he regains his sanity and then he converts. That’s keeping the character and the singer very busy but Wood handles the role well. Mezzo soprano Rihab Chaieb plays the nice Fenena, Nabucco’s real daughter and she sings well and provides a contrast to the megalomaniac Abigaile. But she is not without problems. The nice Babylonian has fallen in love with Ismale (tenor Matthew Cairns), a Hebrew, whom she in fact helped him escape from captivity, and became a hostage of the Israelis. Cairns and bass Simon Lim as the Hebrew High Priest Zaccaria deserve kudos for their performances. Lim”s Zaccaria is a steadfast and sonorous leader who keeps the spirits of the Israelites in check under trying conditions.

Verdi paid special attention to the choruses and the dream of freedom of “Va pensiero” is only one of them. They vary from martial bravado, to fear, to expression of triumph. The  COC Chorus under the direction of Sandra Horst is simply outstanding. The COC Orchestra is conducted in exemplary fashion by Paolo Carignani.  

The sets by Michael Yeargan and the lighting by Mikael Kangas favour dark tones and spotlights. The Babylonian throne at the top of a staircase looks like a simple bench and we have the right to expect something more ostentatious. A few brightly lit scenes would help.  

The same observation applies to Director Katherine M. Carter, who may have had to face budget restrictions rather than failure of the imagination in some of her decisions. I feel that perhaps I am being churlish when I should be grateful and applauding loudly for a production that is highly laudable, of an opera opera that for all its shortcomings, deserves to be produced more frequently.

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Nabucco by Giuseppe Verdi (music) and Temistocle Solera (libretto) was performed seven times between October 4 and 29,  2024 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, 145 Queen St. West Toronto, Ont. www.coc.ca

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press

THE STUDENT PRINCE - REVIEW OF 2024 TORONTO OPERETTA THEATRE PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

Toronto Operetta Theatre offers its third production of Sigmund Romberg’s The Student Prince after a nine-year absence since its last showing. It is a creditworthy effort on the 100^th anniversary of the operetta’s opening. The 2015 production was performed five times but this year’s staging will get a paltry three showings. What is happening to operetta productions in Toronto these days? More below. 

The current production has some fine spots but also some hiccups that affect the overall enjoyment of the bright piece. The operetta is lively, often funny, and full of romantic, boisterous, melodious and wonderful songs. It is operetta as it should be.

We are in the country of Karsberg where the young and handsome heir to the throne Prince Karl Franz (Xavier Flory) is preparing to go to the University of Heidelberg to finish his studies. His future is laid out for him. He will become king upon the death of his elderly grandfather and will marry Princess Margaret (Minerva Lobato) to whom he is already betrothed.

He is accompanied by his bossy valet Lutz (Karen Bojti), his humane tutor Dr. Engel (Ryan Hofman) and will be visited by the Prime Minister von Mark (Sebastien Belcourt) when necessary. The Prince feels that he is under surveillance all the time.

But life as a student in Heidelberg proves to be a riot. At The Inn of the Three Golden Apples he meets other students including members of The Saxon Corps who drink, sing and lead a riotous life. The colorful Ruder (Sebastien Belcourt again) is the keeper of the inn and he has a toothsome and fetching niece called Kathie (Brooke Mitchell) who catches the Price’s heart. Between the members of the Corps and the staff of the Inn there are opportunities for student shenanigans and a serious bout of inebriation and entertainment for us.

Brooke Mitchell as Kathie (centre) and cast in The Student Prince
Photo: Gary Beechy / BOS Studios 

The Prince’s betrothed shows up at the inn with her snooty mother, Duchess Anastasia (Carrie Parks) but our hero is in love with Kathie and plans to elope with her. But the king dies and he is summoned to Karlsberg and the reality of having to become king. He does and his plans to elope with Kathie are unraveled. Princess Margaret is not too bad, he decides and it is time for  him to settle down and the audience to go home.

The original tenor became ill and had to be replaced on five days’ notice by Xavier Flory. Aside from some missteps, he does a fine job in the role especially considering the short time he had to learn the role.

There were several cast members who unfortunately did not enunciate to the point where we could not follow what they were saying.  Director Guillermo Silva-Marin  had some difficulty getting out all the humour of the operetta. Lutz, the students and some of the servants could have been used for more laughs which simply did not materialize. Silva-Marin usually interlopes jokes about current politics but this time there was only one about Justin Trudeau.

Kudos to conductor Kate Carver who conducted the tiny orchestra and the action on the stage meticulously and enthusiastically.

What is happening to the production of operetta in Toronto? In the program, TOT describes itself as Canada’s lyric leader bringing classic operettas and related musicals to us. It is in its 40^th year and that is a major achievement. Credit is due to the tireless Silva-Marin who almost single-handedly manages to continue entertaining us despite some obvious financial issues.

The first operetta I saw was The Mikado in 1974 with the inimitable John Reed at Sadler’s Wells in London. I was hooked. Most European countries have productions of operettas as part of their cultural life. Why is it not catching on in Canada?

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The Student Prince by Sigmund Romberg is being performed on November 1 ,2 and 3, 2024 at the Jane Mallett Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, 27 Front Street East, Toronto, Ontario. Tel:  (416) 366-7723. www.stlc.com or www.torontooperetta.com

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press

MY NAME IS LUCY BARTON - REVIEW OF 2024 CANADIAN STAGE PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

My Name Is Lucy Barton is an adaptation for the stage by Rona Munro of Elizabeth Strout’s novel. It is performed by a single actor and no review should start without giving credit to Maev Beaty for a bravura performance of a complex and long (1 hour and 40 minutes) script without an intermission and without a hitch. It is acting at its best.

This is a memory play and Lucy Barton’s recollections about her life come pouring out as she recovers in hospital from complications following an appendectomy. The first thing that struck me is the title of the play. She insists on telling us her name as if to make sure that we know who she is. She needs to establish her identity first rather than telling us that she will talk about her life or being a writer or any other angle that she may wish to examine. Why the insistence on her name?    

We meet Lucy Barton in the hospital where she is waking up after an operation. Her  appendectomy has become infected and what should have been a brief stay has extended to nine weeks in a New York hospital. Lucy finds her mother seated at the foot of her bed, nothing unusual in that, one would surmise. But she has not seen her mother for nine years and it becomes an important event. Lucy has complicated relations with her mother and almost everyone else that she meets and her mother’s visit begins the unraveling of Lucy’s life as she relates it to us.

She had an unhappy childhood with poverty and difficult, unaffectionate parents. but her mother overcame her fear of flying and is sitting at the end of Lucy’s hospital bed. Do the facts as told by Lucy reflect with reality?

Maev Beaty in My Name Is Lucy Barton. 

Photo: Dahlia Katz/Canadian Stage

The hospital room, the set that is by Michael Gianfrancesco  consists of a bed and a chair for the entire performance. He also designed elegant attire for Beaty. She moves around the stage and narrates part of her autobiography which covers her life from childhood to marriage, to children, divorce and her becoming a successful writer. She tells her story in a stream-of-consciousness style meaning that she tells us whatever comes to her mind without attempting chronological order or any other order that I could discern.

There are a few flashes of humour but Lucy tells us her story in a straightforward fashion that hides far more than it reveals. Her relationship with both her parents, her siblings and her children suggest that this is a dysfunctional family. Is this normal?  She shows very little emotion or histrionics about some very miserable parts of her life. She does love her children and expresses grief about the death of a gay friend from AIDS. She had not seen her mother for nine years and is pleased to see her? Back to her mother’s visit where the two women appear normal. Is it only on the surface? After her mother leaves the hospital, Lucy does not see her for nine years again. What is going on?

Lucy is advised to be ruthless and perhaps she is but her real motivation is to watch people it is that trait that makes her a writer and perhaps all the ups and downs of her life and all the strained relationships are merely a preparation for Lucy to become a writer. The reality behind what she tells us may be opaque because it may simply be the basis for her becoming a writer.

The simple set is supplemented with projected videos of waves in changing colours designed by Amelia Scott, lighting designed by Bonnie Beecher and sound by Jacob Li.

Jackie Maxwell once again displays her sensitivity and mastery in  directing a difficult play to perfection.
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My Name Is Lucy Barton adapted for the stage by Rona Munro from the novel by Elizabeth Strout continues until November 3, 2024, at the Bluma Appel Theatre, Toronto, Ontario. www.canstage.com

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press

ACIS AND GALATEA – REVIEW OF 2024 OPERA ATELIER EXQUISITE PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Seeing Acis and Galatea by George Frideric Handel at the gorgeous Elgin Theatre in Toronto is like being handed a bouquet of gorgeous roses by a knight dressed in finery or a beautiful lady in an elegant gown.  It is a beautiful opera, a wonderful love story and in the hands of Opera Atelier’s  co-artistic directors Marshall Pynkoski  and Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg it is much more than even that.

It was Handel’s first work in English and was first produced in 1718 and went through numerous changes but its 1732 version seems to have carried the day. There is no agreement as to what it is and it has been called a masque, a pastoral, a serenata and other names but who cares. In the hands of Pynkoski and Zingg it becomes an opera-ballet.

The work is based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses and involves the beautiful love of the mortal shepherd Acis (marvelous tenor Antonin Rondepierre) and the demi-goddess water nymph Galatea (superb soprano (Meghan Lindsay). Their pure love is suffused with sexual desire. The beauties of the plain of Arcadia are not enough to cool her love (i.e. sexual desire) and the singing birds “kindle fierce desire” in her. Acis is looking for her and imagines her bathing in crystal fountains. He sees love panting on her breast that swells with soft desire. This is beautiful orgasmic attraction.  

Acis and Galatea in 2024 Opera Atelier production. Photo: Bruce Zinger 

The Chorus (The Nathaniel Dett Chorale) steps in to announce Fate’s decree that Acis and Galatea’s love will not last. The cyclops Polyphemus (funny and resonant bass-baritone Douglas Williams) feels the same way about Galatea in an uncouth and barbaric way. We can descent to crude language with him – he is just horny. Damon (tenor Blaise Rantoanina)   pours cold water on human passion and even instructs Polyphemus on how to woo Galatea. 

Polyphemus does kill Acis and we hear some of the most beautiful grieving by the Chorus and Galatea. Acis is turned into a river god which provides some consolation to Galatea and immortality to her lover.

The arias, duets and recitatives are almost all accompanied by a dozen members of The Atelier Ballet corps dancing in their gorgeous gowns. The singing and music are beautiful enough but the dances, choreographed by Zingg are a significant, added pleasure That is why I say Acis and Galatea is an opera-ballet. The dancing like the singing is exquisite.  

Acis the shepherd wrongly tending goats instead of sheep! 

Photo: Bruce Zinger

Rondepierre and Lindsay sing with delicacy, erotic desire, and passion Douglas Williams  is played for laughs. He is a lumbering oaf with primitive sexual urges but manages to provide some laughs before the tragic end of Acis.

About twenty members of the Tafelmusik orchestra are crammed in what passes for a pit and conducted by Christopher Bagan. They produce all the beautiful sounds that Handel composed for them.

The set and costumes by Gerard Gauci enhance the beauty of the production and the result is a delightful night at the opera

Postscript I must add a comment about the opening scene. As the action is about to begin a bunch of goats go across the stge. Okay, they are not real but they have no business being there. Acis is a shepherd, a herder of sheep not of goats. In that case he would be a goatherd. Goats are usually found on mountains and not on the verdant plains of Arcadia where Acis and Galatea live and not, heaven forfend, near Mount Etna in Sicily. I state this with the authority of the only one in the audience who has first-hand experience as a (bad) sheep herder and suggest that in the future the faux pas must be corrected. 

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Acis and Galatea by George Frideric Handel, presented by Opera Atelier, played from October 24 to 27, 2024 at the Elgin Theatre, 189 Yonge Street, Toronto. www.operaatelier.com

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press.